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Originally Posted by direwolf
Did we really need his back story though? Going back to the original trilogy, the Emperor's story was a complete mystery up until Lucas made the prequels. I know there were novels that probably explored his story during the years between the two movie trilogies (I never read them), but if we're strictly talking about the original films, not much was ever revealed about who this dude was. The focus of the story was always about Vader and Luke, and the Emperor's back story didn't really matter. I think that's kind of what they're going for with this new trilogy. Kylo Ren is being set up as the ultimate baddie, and him killing Snoke was the final step for him to fully succumb to the dark side. In that way it kind of mirrors ROTJ:
My guess is that Snoke had already foreseen that Kylo might kill him, and that he purposely allowed it to happen in order to prevent Rey from pulling Kylo back to the light. Just a theory.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how Abrams wraps it all up in episode IX. I can't imagine the insane amount of pressure that a director/writer must feel when making one of these movies. It really is a no win situation, as it's impossible to please everyone and no matter how you approach the story, you'll still be scrutinized by a large swath of the fan base.
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Palpatine's background was built through 6 movies. Yes, we only had episodes 4-6 for a while, but we knew he had SOME sort of history prior to the events of episode 4. Hell, it was called episode 4. We knew we weren't being given the whole story.
Snoke apparently wasn't in any prior movies. He's doing some of the most powerful #### we've ever seen with the force, he's throwing Rey around like a ragdoll, extracting Luke's location from her mind... where did he come from? How is he doing all this?
This may not matter to a lot of people, and maybe this is their new theme that power can rise from nothing - but it's just not entertaining from a fan perspective. It's boring - I have no interest in episode 9 now because nothing really matters in the end.
And it's not like we haven't seen that story before either. Anakin came from nowhere - he didn't even have a father. But that's what Star Wars quickly became about - a family drama set in space.
Literally anything else would have been better than what they did with Snoke. Episode 7 set this up so easily, and not a single writer or director in Hollywood could think of a fun way to twist this series while also giving some of the more hardcore fans some service here? It just feels very cheap and inconsequential that it doesn't fit in with the series.
Instead of spending more time on this really interesting storyline, the writers instead decided to focus on Rose and Finn (and I really like Finn's character) that proved to be a dead end that could have been prevented if Admiral Holdo had just told Poe her plan.
This comment I found on a YT review explains it pretty well:
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But the thing is...the emperor was the emperor. His position is established, his motivation is established (a guy who wants to kill the people messing with his empire), his purpose is made clear (he wants to see his rebuilt Death Star in action while getting front row seats to his evil plans), and he is told to be the one who corrupted Vader, which points to him being the greater evil.
Now compare this to Snoke, who apparently created the First Order but we're never given an explanation as to WHAT the First Order even is in any way, shape, or form. The Empire in the OT was the main galaxy-wide antagonistic force with immense power and resources because it's a galactic empire. The First Order? No, seriously, what even is the First Order supposed to be other than the directors being too lazy to think of new villains so they reused the Imperial Army assets? I've been dying to find this out only to be given nothing...again.
Because what did Snoke do, anyways? He sits his ass on a chair, giving orders to kill #### for an unexplained reason with no hints or logical basis. The Emperor needed to wipe out the Rebels because they're rebelling against his galaxy-wide government, causing chaos in his bubble of power that he can't tolerate because that puts his empire in danger. Why is Snoke hell-bent on destroying the New Republic? He's a literal nobody who amassed an army of reused assets whose just attacking for the sake of it since there's no logical basis. He's not trying to protect his assets like the Emperor did; he's just attacking to...idk, conquer territory? Why then? Not even the prequel villains were this shoehorned in, which is saying quite a ####ing lot when considering how Dooku and Grievous needed follow-up stories in books, TV show, and comics shortly after their debut to explain their existences, whilst Snoke got nothing even after TFA.
Snoke is never given a "Why?" to his actions in any way. Is he just a dick? Is he trying to revive the Empire? Is he trying to scour the galaxy for a miracle cure for his play-dough morphed Gollum features? The Emperor didn't need much backstory because it was his job to put down the Rebels as the ruler of the galaxy. He was doing his job. Snoke needed something, anything, to explain who or what he is but wasn't given that.
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